National Services Te Paerangi

Fact Sheet 8: Template and Sample - Marketing Plan

The marketing plan

Taking time to write a marketing plan will ensure that all the elements are thought through strategically and all opportunities are considered. Being disciplined will ensure that your marketing resources are used as effectively as they can be. Heres a template that will help structure your plan and ensure all essential elements are considered and included if appropriate. The left-hand column describes the plans various elements, the right-hand column shows you a worked example.

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Marketing plan elements Title Product Description Explain exactly what it is that you are marketing. Is it the organisation as a whole? Is it a specific product or service that you currently offer or plan to offer your museum shop, a new exhibition, a behind-the-scenes tour? Include a description of the product or service, how much it costs, where it is, and when its available.

Worked example Marketing plan for StoryPlace @ Te Papa Product Description StoryPlace is a slice of Te Papa life specially designed for children five years and under. Themed around New Zealands natural environment it provides a safe, well-equipped area for children and their caregivers to learn and enjoy time together.

StoryPlace is open 365 days a year, with five programmed sessions during the week and six on weekends and public holidays. All sessions are 45 minutes long. The programme theme changes every three weeks.

Admission to StoryPlace costs $2 per person. It is free for children 18 months and under. Situational analysis Briefly summarise the current situation. Is it a new exhibition or product? If it is an established business, how is it currently performing? What are the key strengths and weaknesses? What are the key opportunities and threats? What external factors may impact on its performance (e.g., economic or political factors)? The space and facilities within StoryPlace are of high quality and specially designed for children. Parking and access for buggies is good. Situational analysis When StoryPlace opened in 1998 admission was free. Three years ago a charge of $2 per person was introduced and as a result visitor numbers dropped substantially. A small marketing campaign was developed to raise awareness and visitation. Just over 1% of Te Papas visitors currently go to StoryPlace.

As part of Te Papa, StoryPlace has a large family audience and a wonderful variety of other facilities and experiences on its doorstep. However it is hard to find within Te Papa.

The staff are experienced early-childhood

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Marketing plan elements

Worked example educators. They are caring and friendly. They offer programmes in both English and te reo Mori.

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Marketing plan elements Competitive analysis Who are your key competitors (e.g., organisations targeting the same visitors, operating a similar business, competing for the same leisure time and/or dollar)? What do you know about them what are their key strengths and weaknesses? How do you compare with these competitors on price, quality, image, etc?

Worked example Competitive analysis Competitors within Wellington include other exhibitions and facilities within Te Papa, other gallery and museum programmes for children, Capital E, libraries, the Zoo, swimming pools, parks, playgrounds, movies, community playgroups, and even fast food restaurants like McDonalds and KFC.

Most of these have no limit on how long parents and children can spend in the facilities. Parks, playgrounds, and libraries are generally free and are often handier to home. McDonalds and KFC are international brands with multi-million dollar marketing campaigns.

Target market/s (the customer) Who is mostly likely to be interested in visiting your exhibition or purchasing your product? What are their demographic characteristics (age, gender, household income, education, ethnicity, etc)? What are their psychographic characteristics what types of things do they do and what motivates them? This is your core target who your programmes are directed towards. It is more specific and usually a sub-set of your total user base Core visitor experience Describe the core things that you would like people to experience when they visit your exhibition or

Target market/s (the customer) The target market is predominantly female and aged between 25 and 39 years. Specifically they are: parents with family/children between six months and five years, visiting in a family group; caregivers and early childhood organisations in the Wellington region, including casual childcare, kindergartens, childcare centres, kohanga reo, Pacific Island language nests, and play centres; staff working in community-based organisations such as libraries and recreational centres; children six months to five years.

Core visitor experience When children visit StoryPlace they will feel stimulated and safe. Caregivers will feel good seeing their children having fun while being

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Marketing plan elements experience your product.

Worked example educated. Both children and caregivers will enjoy participating in activities together.

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Marketing plan elements Brand positioning What is your brand name and tag line, if you have one? What are the values of your brand? How do these values position your brand relative to your competitors?

Worked example Brand positioning StoryPlace our big outdoors for 5 years and under te ao nui m ng tamariki StoryPlaces brand values include being: Stimulating and safe for children five years and under and their caregivers. Educational with activities based on New Zealands unique natural world. Warm, bright, and comfortable. Bicultural. Caring, experienced, and friendly.

Marketing objectives You need to specify what you want to achieve through the implementation of the marketing plan. To be of use, these objectives should be measurable, so include a time frame and particular outcomes, and make them realistic (see also Measuring your marketing effectiveness on page xx). Marketing strategies Based on all the information you have gathered, what is the main strategic approach that you will take to achieve the marketing objectives?

Marketing objectives Achieve revenue of $20,000 excl GST this financial year. Achieve total visitation of 12,000 visitors this financial year. Achieve an average customer satisfaction rating of 8 out 10

Marketing strategies The research indicates that there is currently a high level of customer satisfaction so no product development is considered necessary this financial year.

Given the defined target audience and small marketing budget, marketing activities will be highly targeted and will include direct marketing, targeted press and magazine features, internal promotion, and participation in local events targeting the same audience.

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Marketing plan elements

Worked example

Activities will be implemented that give StoryPlace long-term visibility among the target audience, increase awareness for StoryPlace among visitors to Te Papa, and encourage repeat visitation among existing customers.

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Marketing plan elements Pricing What price will you charge for your exhibition or product. Include the full range of prices, e.g., adult, child, concession, members, groups, families, schools. (See also the section Practical pricing hints on page xx.) Strategic alignments Think about other products or organisations, both internal and external, that you could work with to help achieve your objectives. The most successful strategic alignments will be those that are of mutual benefit.

Worked example Pricing StoryPlace costs $2 per person (both adults and children). It is free for children 18 months and under. To encourage first time users, 2-for-1 vouchers will be used at targeted family events in Wellington.

Strategic alignments Internal: Foodtrain family caf, Te Papas Treasure Store, Discovery Centres, short-term family exhibitions, Te Papa hosts, and the education team.

External: early childhood centres and khanga reo, community-based organisations, libraries, Plunket, childrens stores, family event organisers.

Promotional activities Detail the specific things you will do to implement the plan. Include paid activities, free activities, and give-aways. Always keep in mind who your target audience is and how cost effective each media type is in reaching that audience.

Promotional activities Promotional mail-out Develop a colourful, high quality promotional brochure and A3 poster, and distribute them to early childhood organisations, kohanga reo, childrens entertainment facilities and communitybased organisations such as toy libraries, community centres, doctors & dentists waiting rooms, Plunket, Wellington Zoo,

Under each heading identify whether the activity will be used and why. Be as specific as possible where, when, how often, how big, how much you will spend, etc.

etc. SmartFax and e-mail updates direct to creches, pre-schools, kohanga reo, and community newsletters. Direct marketing Develop a presentation kit and visit at least two early childhood facilities each month.

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Marketing plan elements Promotional media may include: TV: local, national, international Cinema: mainstream, boutique Magazines: from broad general audience to highly targeted Newspapers: local, community, regional, national, weekend Radio: local, commercial, national, talkback, iwi, youth, rock, etc. Outdoor: posters, banners, billboards, buses Direct mail: mailing lists (yours and others), mail box drops, brochure distribution Electronic: websites (yours and others), e-mail Internal: signage, posters and brochures, staff training, member newsletters, staff notice boards and newsletters. Co-promotions: things you will do together with other organisations or products both internal and external.

Worked example External events Attend the Wellington Parent & Child Show, Cuba Street Carnival kids zone, and Christmas Parade with Te Papa costume characters handing out 2-for-1 vouchers to encourage first time visits to StoryPlace. Website Develop a StoryPlace page for Te Papas website and identify other websites, targeting a similar audience, to link to. Internal Train Te Papa hosts regularly on the programme content and general facilities within StoryPlace to act as walking, talking brochures. Include information on StoryPlace in generic Te Papa promotional material. Display the brochure and poster internally in the Discovery Centres, Te Papas Treasure Store, foodtrain, the baby change rooms, and at the information desk. Increase size and improve placement of directional signage to StoryPlace. Public relations (PR) Identify upcoming early childhood features in press and magazines contact the feature editors and supply them with information and good images. Develop ongoing relationships with the editors of childrens and family press and magazines, particularly those with family activity sections.

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Marketing plan elements Budget What is the total budget for implementing the plan? Give details of how you plan to spend it. It will need to cover design, copy writing, production of materials, printing, mailing and distribution, installation, casual staff, etc.

Worked example Budget Total budget for the financial year is $5,000 and includes: Replenish resources 5,000 copies, four colour, DLE promotional brochure = $2,000 300 four colour A3 promotional posters = $750 Two mail-outs and four SmartFax = $500 Presentation kit = $250 Participation in local events = $1,500. Visitor numbers do a manual count of tickets sold by StoryPlace staff and of group bookings. Revenue produce a weekly report from the Posware system at the Information Desk. Success of specific marketing activities tracking numbers by month against activities undertaken. Success of PR activities - monitoring press coverage. Survey usage, attitudes, and satisfaction of visitors as part of Te Papas monthly exit interviews.

Performance measures How will you measure your objectives and who will do the measuring? Examples of things to measure may include visitor numbers, visitor awareness of the exhibition, product sales, spend per person, media coverage, customer satisfaction. Ways to measure these may include customer surveys, door counts, till receipts, scanning newspapers for free coverage. (See Measuring your marketing effectiveness below.)

Performance measures

Source: He Rauemi Resource Guide No. 19: Developing a Marketing Plan, pg 5 Copyright Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa October 2007 The contents of this fact-sheet maybe photocopied for museum services for purposes of their own staff and volunteer training, but no portion of it may be reprinted for any other purpose without the written permission of the Chief Executive, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

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